Does your lead aggregator deliver qualified leads directly to your sales team? If the answer is no, then we have a New Year’s resolution for you – one that will lead to higher conversion rates, increased NOI, and a stronger brand presence. Say hello to 2019 by saying goodbye to your self storage lead aggregator.

The True Cost of a Lead Aggregator 

  • You are paying to compete with yourself. Lead aggregators place you alongside your competitors, leading to increased concessions. And if your website was built to bring in traffic, an aggregator is stealing your leads and then selling them back to you at a premium price.
  • You pay for quantity, not quality. Visitors to lead aggregators tend to shop around the site without having an intent to lease. High-intent customers on the other hand, perform an organic search with location and storage-specific terms. Nearly 65 percent of these customers click on digital advertisements.
  • Lead aggregators diminish your overall brand. Does your lead aggregator represent your brand the way you want it to? A third-party marketing platform simply cannot cater to each and every client the same way your website can. By keeping the customer journey within your branded online platform, you invite customers to get to know – and trust – you from the get-go.

Why Are So Many Businesses Dependent on Lead Aggregators?

Lead aggregators have been the go-to choice for self storage owners and operators since the first days of digital marketing. Why? Because they own the first page of Google search results and have the money and resources to spend whatever it takes to maintain the top positions on SERP.

But there is a way to beat the system. It requires understanding how digital marketing has changed and how you can take advantage. It’s time to move past lead aggregators to tactics like local SEO, real time pricing and availability integrations, and dynamic digital advertising.

Marketing Alternatives

According to Entrata, searchers view multiple websites, from review sites to individual webpages, before deciding where to lease. Lead aggregators determine spend based on a first-click or last-click attribution model. But this is no longer representative of the search process. Instead, you need to use a variety of channels to market your property. The Entrata survey revealed Google Organic, Google Ads, and Google My Business listings as the top three most influential channels. Lead aggregators only ranked sixth.

Let’s take a look at three ways to reshape your marketing mix, after breaking ties with your lead aggregator.

1. Optimize Your Website for Local SEO and Voice Search

Local rankings and proximity to a searcher are the top drivers of Google search results. As you move away from lead aggregators, it is essential that your digital presence be optimized for local SEO. We recommend incorporating conversational, question-and-answer-based copy on your website.

Why is this necessary? Voice search is quickly dominating the scene and it demands different access points than typed searches. Ask-and-answer questions within your content by thinking like a customer: what features or services deliver the most value for their needs? Write clear and concise responses, without jargon, that invites the searcher to take the next step.

2. Above-the-Fold Real-Time Pricing and Availability Website Integration

The entire self storage research-to-lease process can take anywhere from a month to less than a day. The majority of this occurs online. It’s essential to provide as much accurate and relevant information online as a searcher would receive if they called your office or stopped by. Start by using an inventory data feed that show real-time pricing and inventory on your homepage. Remember, the fewer clicks to lease, the more likely a prospect is to convert.

3. Pre-Qualify Leads with Dynamic Ads

Next, power your digital advertising campaign with real-time data and dynamic search ads to self-qualify prospects before sending them to your site. These ads are populated with the real-time pricing and availability data and are then turned on or off based on vacancy. The benefits? You only pay to advertise available units, attracting more qualified leads. Once a unit type or parking option is full, ads are automatically disabled and a new ad is turned on for the current vacancy.

The next step is to incorporate Google’s Responsive Search Ads to this process. Unlike traditional search ads, which use only one static ad headline and description, these use up to 15 different headlines and up to four different descriptions. Google will arrange different combinations of headlines and descriptions to learn which combinations perform best according to the user’s search query, device use, and past browsing behavior.

Turn Leads into Leases with G5

Cutting ties with your lead aggregator is the first step. The next is to find a front-end marketing partner with a digital advertising platform tailored to your needs. G5 can help by reshaping your marketing platform to include dynamic ads, optimized SEO, and real-time pricing and availability.

To learn more, click here to download our latest white paper, How to Turn Digital Marketing Leads into Leases. It provides an overview of the tools and tactics you need to improve conversion rates, without depending on a lead aggregator.